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This recipe is a winner. I’ve modified it slightly so it’s somewhat less dry; otherwise the original is just as good. The ingredients are:

Chicken, 3 large breasts

Onions, 2 large, diced

Diced Tomatoes, 2 cans

Garlic, 5 cloves, sliced or minced

Ginger, 1 tablespoon, minced

Jalapeno, 1-2, diced

Cilantro, 3 tablespoons, chopped

Parsley, 2 tablespoons, chopped

Chicken stock, 4 cups

Basmati rice, 2 cups

Loomi, 2-3

Green cardamom, 5 pods

Cloves, ground, 1/4 teaspoon

Cinnamon stick, 1

Salt, 2½ teaspoons

Turmeric, 1 teaspoon

Baharat, 1 tablespoon

Rosewater for sprinkling

Ghee, 3 tablespoons

Vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons

The ingredients.

Again, some of these ingredients may be hard to find. This is rosewater, and you can find it online, though you may also be able to find it at your local Asian market.

Rose water.

These are loomi; again, they can be found online, or at your local spice merchant.

Loomi

Finally, this is baharat, a spice mixture. If you’re so inclined, you can try making it yourself, but as you can see, I bought mine.

Baharat.

First, do some frying: heat the oil, and brown the chicken on both sides, then remove.

Browning.

Golden.

Next, add the ghee to the oil that remains and fry the onions until they start to brown.

Ghee, pre-melt.

Onions, pre-brown.

You can use this time to prep the next ingredients – the jalapeno, ginger, and garlic. Then add them to the pot and saute for another 2-3 minutes.

Three ingredients.

Added to the pot.

Then add more stuff – the baharat and turmeric, to be exact – and cook for another minute or two.

Spices added.

Now the chicken goes back in, along with a few other choice ingredients: the tomatoes, loomi, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and chicken stock. Make sure you perforate the loomi with innumerable holes before you plunk them in; a knife will do fine.

More stuff goes in.

And the chicken broth, too.

Bring the pot to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it simmer, covered, for an hour or so. Meanwhile, you can prep the cilantro, parsley, and the rice. Make sure that you soak the rice in water for at least 20 minutes.

Rice is nice.

When the pot is done simmering, you should simmer it some more – but this time, with the rice and the herbs added to the pot. Let it alone for another 20 minutes, so that the rice has time to soak up the liquid.

Post-simmer AND pre-simmer.

Finally, sprinkle with the rosewater, which is optional but recommended. 1-2 tablespoons should be enough, but feel free to adjust to your own liking.

Voila.

You can also shred the chicken if you want; it’ll probably end up that way anyway: it’s so tender it tends to fall apart. And it’s delicious. Highly recommended!

Gambas al Ajillo (garlic shrimp) is a famous Spanish tapas recipe that is mesmerizingly delicious. These are the ingredients:

About a pound of frozen shrimp (roughly 25), heads and tails off, medium or large

10 large cloves of garlic

Half a cup of olive oil

1 tsp of red pepper flakes

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Dry sherry, either a quarter cup or a third of a cup

Lemon juice

Black pepper

Chopped parsley for garnish

The ingredients

The first step is to finely chop the garlic, and add it to the olive oil.

Add that garlic!

Then let the shrimp marinate for a while. The longer they marinate, the more garlicky they’ll be, but 30 minutes is fine. This is also when you add the salt and the baking soda. The baking soda helps keep the shrimp crunchy, and together, the salt and baking soda help the shrimp retain their juiciness.

Marinate the shrimp.

Next, remove the shrimp and dump everything else in the pan. Cook the garlic for about five minutes on medium-high heat to bring out more of the flavor.

Cook the mixture (minus the shrimp).

Next, add the red pepper flakes, and cook for another minute or so.

Add the red pepper.

Add in almost everything else – the shrimp; the sherry; the pepper (to taste); the lemon juice (again, to taste). Don’t overcook the shrimp! About 4 minutes on the medium-high heat should be good enough.

Add everything else, except the parsley.

That’s plenty of time to chop the parsley for the garnish.

Chopped parsley!

Then add the parsley and you’re done. The shrimp are delicious, but the oil is too – it’s incredibly flavorful, and perfect for mopping up with a baguette.

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A Thought

"When someone works for less pay then she can live on – when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently – then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philantropists of our society."